Chlorine

In every swimming pool, you can find one thing that is the same. That “thing” is the chemical of chlorine. Now if you have taken chemistry, I’m sure you now all about the chemical. For those of us who have not here are some basic facts:

On the Periodic Table:

·         Symbol: Cl

·         Atomic Number: 17

·         Color: Green

·         Number of Energy Levels: 3

All of this information about chlorine was found at this peridodic table website.

Anyway, I am NOT here to give you a chemistry lesson. That would be boring! No, no. I am here to talk to you about so cool it will blow your mind! I am going to talk to you about the effects chlorine has on swimmers.

You may think that it just makes us smell and keeps us clean in the pool while we swim multiple laps. But that does not even begin to cover what it does to us swimmers.

One thing this lovely chemical does to us aquatic athletes is make us smell like it... forever! “You know you are a swimmer when you take an hour long shower and still smell like chlorine!” said current swimmer Janelle Galang.  It is said that chlorine is a swimmers permanent perfume.

Another thing chlorine does to swimmers is change their hair color. For me, being blonde, I must be very careful that I wash my hair after EVERY practice. Otherwise my hair will turn a light shade of green. I made this mistake when I was younger because I never wore a swim cap. Even girls with brown hair see a change in hair color. “It [her hair] was starting to look like a peach or very light brown color because I am in the water so often,” said swimmer, Grace Anschutz.

One other of the various things chlorine does to a swimmer is dry out the skin. Swimmers go through bottle after bottle of lotion because on many swimmers, chlorine dries out certain areas of your skin. The most common area is the face and arms. 

So, although chlorine seems to be a huge help when it comes to a pool, it still has a rather large effect on swimmers.

Swimming: the Sport for All

        No matter what people think, swimming is not the easiest sport ever. Swimming can be and most of the time is, just as hard as football, basketball, and soccer.

Swimmers use every muscle they have to swim in every stroke. We may not have to hit each other in shoulder pads, or run back and forth kicking or dribbling a ball, but we swimmers, we go above and beyond. It is said that swimming is a good workout no matter how old you are. Because it works all of the muscles and you don’t necessarily have to be in the best shape of your life to swim a couple of laps at your local pool, swimming is the sport for all. According to this website, swimming is the third most popular activity in the U.S. after walking and exercising with equipment.

Also, according to this Iowa State University paper, swimming does the best for one’s body and can be done year round, no matter what the weather.

With swimming, injuries are very minimal. If a swimmer does get injured, it is from lack of stretching or hitting your heel on the gutter during a flip turn. You may have heard of swimmers ear and how it is considered an injury. This is a false fact. Swimmers ear only comes up once in a while and doesn’t affect your swimming in any way.

So back to my point: swimming is the sport for all. Injuries are minimal, it is a great workout and it can be done year round.